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THE FAILURE OF international travel retailer Low Cost Holidays (LCH) last Friday evening has left thousands of holidaymakers across Europe in a position of some uncertainty.
Ireland is no exception – LCH via lowcostholidays.ie is a registered travel agent here – and that sees an estimated 15,000 Irish travellers caught in limbo.
Some have yet to travel, many are already abroad, but the two associations most directly involved in the farrago (the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) and the Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR)) from an Irish point of view have spoken out this morning.
We can’t sugar-coat it, it sounds like a dreadful situation – at the very least it will be a paper-forms nightmare followed by a long wait for reimbursement – but still, all may not be lost.
The relevant advice really depends on what kind of holiday you booked. Things are at their most uncertain should you have booked accommodation only via a travel agent and lowcostbeds.com.
Here’s the main points regarding what you should do if you have a holiday booked with LCH:
Earlier, CEO of the Irish Travel Agents Association Pat Dawson told RTÉ Morning Ireland that it is “people who are already away who are being particularly badly affected”.
“This shouldn’t have happened, this is a huge company we’re talking about here,” he said, while also bemoaning the fact that LCH went bust at 4.30pm on a Friday evening “when they know no-one will be able to contact them over the weekend”.
We are just lucky here that we are bonded by the CAR. British tourists will have to go through LCH itself in Spain.
Dawson said that one unlucky Irish family he spoke to over the weekend had spent €14,000 on an all-inclusive holiday with LCH, while a soon-to-be-married couple he had talked to had spent €3,000 on an accommodation-only trip to Mexico.
“It’s terribly distressing for all those who are caught up in it,” Hodnett told Morning Ireland.
“Dumbfounded”
Earlier, Morning Ireland spoke to two Irish women who had holidays booked for the coming months with LCH.
“I’m dumbfounded, still in shock,” said Mary Geary, who was due to travel to Mallorca with her boyfriend in September.
I’ve used them numerous times in the last three or four years. I certainly didn’t expect this. We’ve heard nothing whatsoever from the company.
Mary says that she is “very doubtful” as to whether or not she will get her money back.
It was to be my first holiday with my boyfriend, and the thought of losing €1,100 is very, very frustrating. Even the rigmarole we’ll have to go through with Visa.
Niamh Harrigan meanwhile was also due to travel to Spain for her “first holiday in seven years, and our first as a family”.
“I paid €800 and I’m on disability benefit as well,” she says.
I’d like to be compensated. €800 is a lot of money to me – I’m living on a pittance as it is.
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I booked with them for a family holiday last may and the service was great. I got an email last Friday with a sale notice and was going to book again, but there were no flights listed for next year. Thank god I didn’t.
Chances are they knew what was about to happen, and still allowed sale emails to go out to customers… surely that’s illegal!
Yeah got that too “up to 60% off” on Friday in my inbox.. I hope no one got stiffed with that one.
Only on Wednesday night last week were we looking for somewhere for October, decided we’d book a deal we saw for Portugal and we’d pay for it at the end of the month. So lucky but they would have taken payment for the holiday had we had it at the time, surely they must have known at that stage?
Why not just call visa and claim your money back?
I went onto aer lingus earlier, my flights are confirmed, called the hotel, my hotel booking is not. Called ulster bank (visa debit) and asked for a chargeback on the hotel reservation. filled out the form online, they said it should be fine and will get back to me
@iamahorse, where did you find the form online? I have been on to them via phone, twitter and called to my branch in person. Still no form. Getting antsy.
It is illegal for any company to continue to trade when they are knowingly insolvent. ..The Directors are liable under the Companies Act and can face criminal charges. It is a long drawn out process and I cannot think of anyone doing time for such an offence in this country
Why people don’t book flights and hotels themselves with all the websites out there il never know. Far too risky booking through travel agents.
Convenience
To be honest, for me, it worked out cheaper. This wasn’t a travel agent I went to, it was the website itself, so I did the research and it came back about 200 euro less than booking everything seperately myself. That was including transfers and all that extra stuff. Plus there was a rep on site and kids clubs etc. (not that we used them), So for a quick family vacation, this would be the way to go.
Nah, flight, hotel, taxi, job done. No worries, no bus tour of the south of Spain
Guru you’re slagging people for being lazy, see you wont even learn how to code!
Excuse me Mumpsimus, travel agents offer protection in incidences like this. My own company for example, doesn’t pay for accommodation until the client has travelled, thus protecting the customers money completely. I have liased directly with hotels and reprotected all my clients holidays and no one is out of pocket. So don’t blame “travel agents” for this. Low-cost Holidays is a huge company with many branches in accommodation only, flights, packages, they are at fault, not the general travel agencies, many of whom are also suffering the fall out from this.
If you book it yourself you won’t have the protections you would if you had booked through a travel agent.
That’s what travel insurance in for.
If you paid by credit card you can get your money back up to 60 days after the transaction. Charge back department. They might try fob you off but persist, they are obliged by law to refund for goods or services not received. They might try to get you you are not entitled to claim as the agency are bonded but register the claim and then you are covered for any outstanding amount no matter how long the claim takes to process.
Going away next month and had to pay hotel again but Royal Bank of Scotland said they will refund me. Let’s wait and see!
Just as well I booked with clickandgo !!
I heard they are next to go!
There are a lot of people out there who don’t mind paying a substantial extra sum of money to have someone else do the organising and worrying for them, and while some know the extra costs involved others are blissfully unaware of how much they could save by doing the trawling themselves but others are equally unaware of how much difference there is between one company and another. LCH were never at the races in the price war ! No intention of sharing my bag of tricks here as I am selfish beyond repentance, but there’s a lotta eejits out there too ! To each his/her own ! There were a lot of worried accommodation owners where I was last week because of the low value of sterling and the fact that it makes accommodation more expensive for people travelling on pounds or companies buying with a strong Sterling , but I assume the season’s requirements were bought forward ? Or maybe not. I would hate to tell you how much I paid as against how much I was quoted for a “package” … being the high season ya know… fair enough, if you have to go at a certain time, no flexibility, kids off school, and you must have THAT Gaff, well it is the seller’s market ! So sorry for those who get caught up in the mire of the back office finances of these big companies and I hope they are successful in getting a refund or an alternative holiday.
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